VP, ex-minister attend Coworking conference 2018 in Lagos

Osinbajo explained that Coworking and co-creation that will define the way we work, progress and output in Nigeria at the 2018 Coworking conference.

Vice President

The conference held on Thursday, July 26, 2018 at the IMAX cinema in Lekki, Lagos.

Speaking at the conference, Osinbajo expressed delight to be among young Nigerians, who he said, have taken a risk to invest in providing co-working spaces to spur innovation, ideas and work that will disrupt our collective lives and experiences.

My experience with entrepreneurs in Coworking industry - Osinbajo

Osinbajo also shared his knowledge of the Coworking industry having interacted with entrepreneurs that have set up Coworking spaces across the country.

He said: "I have had the opportunity to collaborate with Kola Oyeneyin on several other issues, and I am extremely pleased to say that he is someone who sees things through.

"I have also had the opportunity to collaborate with a few of the entrepreneurs here, especially those who have set up co-working spaces, I am very happy to say that they are individuals who would ensure that this is not just a flash in the pan, but it continues as the phenomenon that it is.

"I want to emphasize that this is an economic and social phenomenon, and I say that carefully. The most profound idea of the industrial revolution was probably the concept of Division of Labour. I am sure practically all of us are familiar with that concept."

Osinbajo gives Coworking conference boss a pat on the back

Commending the Kola Oyeneyin, the brain behind the Coworking conference, Osinbajo said, "Kola Oyeneyin’s foresight and grit, as one of the pioneers of this growing, important economic and commercial phenomenon, has demonstrated the sort of drive that I’m sure many across the room have, but which is so important in the way our future as a nation and commercial community will be defined."

The essence of Coworking industry - Osinbajo

The Vice President also took out time to explain the essence and importance of the emerging Coworking industry.

He explained that Coworking and co-creation that will define the way we work, progress and our output.

He said: "In the 19th and 20th century, the division of labour was what defined progress and that whole revolution. In this age of knowledge economy, it is co-working and co-creation that will define the way we work, progress and our output. But let us first understand that the deconstruction of the conventional work environment, important as it is, is the least profound of the implications of co-working. In order words, the mere fact that we are sharing working space is the least profound of the effects of co-working and co-creation.

"The most significant dimension is in the redefinition of how creativity and innovation are birthed. It is no longer the lone wolf or the isolated inventor. Creativity before now was someone inventing something; even a couple of years down the road, the likes of Bill Gates were still lone wolves, working from their garages and same as even Mark Zuckerberg. But they were working in an environment which was changing very quickly, and which they have also changed very quickly.

"We are no longer looking at the age of the lone wolf for the isolated inventor, but collaborative innovation where ideas are shared, developed and refined collaboratively. So co-creation is also the process by which groups of people from across boundaries, come together with a shared purpose, to create value through improving or developing services and products.

"It is by far, the game-changing idea of the knowledge economy. It is bound to fundamentally affect how we work. The work spaces will be liberating not restrictive, allowing for flexibility, not just in working hours, but in modes that we work. But more importantly, it will allow for collaboration, co-innovation, and co-value creation. It emphasizes the power in the interdependence and cross-pollination of ideas, not as an inadvertent occurrence, not as a mistake, but as a currency, as a way of creating, marketing and selling value. We must prepare for the creative disruption of this phenomenon."